The Los Angeles Dodgers have made a new offer to Manny Ramirez: one year and $25 million, according to a major league source. Dodgers GM Ned Colletti confirmed to ESPN.com that he met with Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, on Monday and presented the new offer in person.

Colletti declined to confirm any details of the offer. But the offer was confirmed by another source with knowledge of the discussions. It’s believed that Manny Ramirez and Scott Boras were given a 2 day deadline to accept the offer. The new offer is a step up from the Dodgers’ previous offer. On Election Day, the Dodgers offered Ramirez $15 million for the 2009 season, $22.5 million in 2010 and a $7.5 million buyout or $22.5 million club option for 2011. That contract would have maxed out at $60 million over three years if the Dodgers picked up the option.

After 355 wins and 23 major league seasons, Greg Maddux held a 30-minute news conference to announce his retirement on the opening day of the winter meetings, just minutes from his Las Vegas home.

“I really just came out here today to say thank you,” he at the Bellagio hotel. “I appreciate everything this game has given me. It’s going to be hard to walk away obviously, but it’s time. I have a family now that I need to spend some more time with. I still think I can play the game, but not as well as I would like to, so it’s time to say goodbye.”

Greg Maddux exits game with four NL Cy Young Awards (1992-95) and a 3.16 ERA. The right-hander ranks eighth on the career wins list, with one more victory than Roger Clemens.

After acquiring a potential closer in Florida’s Kevin Gregg on Thursday morning, it was announced that the Cubs would not try to re-sign Kerry Wood, who will be able to accept free-agent offers from other clubs on Friday.
Wood, the 1998 NL Rookie of the Year who saved 34 games this year, had been the longest-tenured player on the Cubs. General manager Jim Hendry said Kerry Wood was deserving of a three- or four-year deal and the Cubs are not prepared to offer him one.
The Chicago Cubs acquired reliever Kevin Gregg in a trade with the Florida Marlins on Thursday, and in addition to the right-handed Gregg, who was the Marlins’ closer until the final month last season, Chicago also has a talented set-up man in Carlos Marmol, who could close. Unlikely that this could ever change the Cub’s World Series betting odds.

The Philadelphia Phillies won the best-of-seven World Series against the American League’s Tampa Bay Rays, four games to one. The Phillies prevailed in the first suspended game in World Series history, with terrible rain and wind, Game 5 had been stopped in the middle of the sixth inning, Monday night, with the Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays tied at 2-all. When play resumed , Philadelphia got a go-ahead run in their half of the sixth inning. But the Rays came right back to tie it at 3-all, on a solo home run by Rocco Baldelli in the top of the seventh.

For the Tampa Bay Rays, even though they lost the World Series, this season was a huge achievement. The franchise has only been in existence since 1998 and, until this season, the Rays had never even had a winning year, finishing last in their division nine of the 10 previous seasons before this one, when they beat the  Boston Red Sox for first place. For the Phillies it was only their second baseball championship in more than a hundred years of existence. Their only other World Series title came in 1980.

Going from worst to first, the Tampa Bay Rays completed a shocking run to their first pennant, holding off the defending champion Boston Red Sox 3-1 Sunday night behind Matt Garza’s incredible pitching in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.”It’s unbelievable,” center fielder B.J. Upton said. “We battled a lot of adversity this year. We stuck together as a team.”And, they showed a bit of Boston-like resolve when they needed it.The Rays nearly let the series slip away when they blew a seven-run lead late in Game 5 and lost meekly Saturday night. The Rays were a 200-1 shot to win the World Series before the season started. Now, they’ll host the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 Wednesday night.

The Boston Red Sox swept the 100-win Angels to the side in four games, dismissing their best-in-baseball regular season as yesterday’s news.

Jason Bay scored with a headfirst slide on Jed Lowrie’s two-out single in the ninth inning and the defending World Series champions took advantage of a squeeze, beating Los Angeles 3-2 Monday night to win their first-round playoff series in four games.

The Boston Red Sox, who won it all in 2004, will have a chance at a third title in five years if it can get past the Rays in the best-of-seven AL championship series that starts Friday night at Tampa Bay.

They were the worst in the majors last year, but now the Tampa Bay Rays will play for a spot in the World Series.

“It means everything. We’ve been at the bottom of the barrel for so long,” B.J. Upton said Monday after homering twice in a 6-2 win over Chicago that clinched their AL playoff. “I think there was a point in time where people didn’t even know who we were.”

Andy Sonnanstine pitched 5 2/3 solid innings and manager Joe Maddon’s surprising Rays won 3-1 in the best-of-five series — their first trip to the posts eason. Next up, they’ll host the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the AL championship series Friday night.

The Tampa Bay Rays, which never won more than 70 games during its 10 previous seasons, went from 96 losses last year to 97 wins and passed the big-spending Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL East.

The New York Yankees will miss the postseason for the first time since starting their run in 1995. Mike Mussina pitched five shutout innings to earn his 19th win, Jason Giambi homered and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep the Yankee’s postseason hopes alive as the Red Sox beat the Indians 5-4 just before the Yankees win. The Boston win clinched the AL wild-card and eliminated the Yankees from postseason contention.

New York shortstop Derek Jeter didn’t start because of an injured left hand, but he came on as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. This will be the first time that the Yankees missed the playoffs in 13 years, truly a remarkable run, which included four World Series titles. Is it the end of an era?

Carlos Zambrano pitched the first no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 36 years, making an awesome comeback from a recent battle with rotator cuff soreness to shut down the Houston Astros 5-0 Sunday night. Zambrano stopped a Houston team that had not played since Thursday. Hurricane Ike forced baseball to move two games from Texas to Miller Park, home of the Brewers, and the Astros flew hours before they took the field.

Zambrano, known for his intense spaz-outs on the mound, kept himself under control until striking out Darin Erstad to finish off his first start since Sept. 2. The right-hander fell to his knees and pointed to the sky with his hands after getting Erstad to swing and miss. Zambrano (14-5) was instantly surrounded on the mound by his teammates.

The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired slugging outfielder Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds yesterday for a minor-league pitcher and two players to be named later. Dunn, 28, was batting .233 this season for the Reds with 32 homers, tied for tops in the majors.